Ecocritical Concerns in the Selected Poems of Mahmoud Darwish and Naomi Shihab Nye

Abstract

Ecocriticism is an advancing field in literature that has opened up avenues in reading world literature from a whole new perspective. This paper seeks to flesh out ecocritical concerns in the selected poems of Mahmoud Darwish and Naomi Shihab Nye by using selected concepts of the theory of ecocriticism given by Greg Garrard: pastoral, wilderness, and the sublime. An analysis of the poetry by the selected writers, sharing their roots from the Arab world, reveals their agenda of using nature as a trope in the form of resistance to colonialism. The writers give a glimpse of the people of their homeland and their culture imbued in nature.

Keywords

• ecocriticism
• nature poetry
• pastoral
• wilderness
• sublime
• Mahmoud Darwish